Chapter I: Preface

Having been most cordially granted permission to republish these letters in a collected form, it is my duty to mention that my mission from the _Daily News_ was absolutely unfettered, either by instructions or introductions. It was thought that an independent and impartial account of the present condition of the disturbed districts of Ireland would be best secured by sending thither a writer without either Irish politics or Irish friends--in short, one who might occupy the stand-point of the too-often-quoted "intelligent foreigner." Hence my little book is purely descriptive of the stirring scenes and deeply interesting people I have met with on my way through the counties of Mayo, Galway, Clare, Limerick, Cork, and Kerry. It is neither a political treatise, nor a dissertation on the tenure of land, but a plain record of my experience of a strange phase of national life. I have simply endeavoured to reflect as accurately as might be the salient features of a social and economic upheaval, soon I fervently hope, to pass into the domain of history; and in offering my work to the public must ask indulgence for the errors of omission and commission so difficult to avoid while travelling and writing rapidly in a country which, even to its own people, is a complex problem.

B.H.B.

ARTS' CLUB, _January 6th, 1881._

CONTENTS.

PAGE I. AT LOUGH MASK 1

II. AN AGRARIAN DIFFICULTY 18

III. LAND MEETINGS 26

IV. MISS GARDINER AND HER TENANTS 52

V. FROM MAYO TO CONNEMARA 70

VI. THE RELIEF OF MR. BOYCOTT 120

VII. MR. RICHARD STACPOOLE 153

VIII. PATRIOTS 160

IX. ON THE FERGUS 166

X. PALLAS AND THE PALLADIANS 191

XI. GOMBEEN 207

XII. THE RETAINER 215

XIII. CROPPED 225

XIV. IN KERRY 232

XV. THE "BOYCOTTING" OF MR. BENCE JONES 262

XVI. A CRUISE IN A GROWLER 279

XVII. "BOYCOTTED" AT CHRISTMASTIDE 307

XVIII. CHRISTMAS IN COUNTY CLARE 328

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DISTURBED IRELAND.